Our View: Health Department move not perfect, but it does buy time

Moving the city Health Department three blocks to rented quarters doesn’t fully resolve the question first raised a year ago regarding its long-term future, but it’s a step in the right direction.

The City Council late last month agreed to rent 5,800 square feet of unused space from the Lubbock Housing Authority at 1708 Crickets Ave. That’s two blocks east and a block north of the aging Health Department building at 19th Street and Texas Avenue.

The relocation will cost the city about $40,000 in rent and an estimated $75,000 in renovations to make the Crickets Avenue site suitable for Health Department services.

“This probably isn’t the perfect solution, but it’s a solution I can live with,” said Mayor Glen Robertson.

That sums it up pretty well.

It was about a year ago the city considered vacating the building currently housing the Health Department. The building was formerly the site of a car dealership and is in need of extensive and expensive renovations if it is to remain in service, according to city officials.

The plan was to move most of the various programs housed in the building to other city departments and contract with non-city groups to maintain the Health Department’s immunization and sexually transmitted disease testing programs.

The move would have saved the city an estimated $400,000 the first year and $835,000 the second.

But public backlash was swift and successful.

The City Council delayed a decision on the plan for 90 days to give an appointed panel time to come up with alternatives.

When no clear alternatives were forthcoming, the council maintained the status quo — but set a deadline for the building at Texas Avenue and 19th Street to be vacated at the end of the city’s fiscal year, Sept. 30.

The Crickets Avenue rental is neither an ideal nor long-term solution. Critics of the location cited its proximity to bars in the Depot District.

Perhaps the neighborhood is not a perfect fit for the Health Department, but let’s not reject an acceptable temporary solution in favor of the elusive perfect site.

We, too, remain advocates of a more perfect permanent solution, but it’s taken a year to get to where we are today. In that time, the matter has been discussed and studied in great detail. Thus far, perfection has not been forthcoming.

Talks with Lubbock County about forming a joint-venture Health Department have yet to bear fruit.

There’s been talk of partnering with the medical community, but that has yet to lead to an action plan.

What has been agreed to is Lubbock needs public health services and, at this point, it falls to the city to provide them.

And if it takes a temporary move to a less-than-ideal location to keep the services available, at least the services remain available — and those who don’t like the location now have increased incentive to find the perfect alternative.

At-a-glance

■ Our position: The decision to move the city’s Health Department from a building in need of extensive renovation to a rental site in the Depot District is not an ideal solution, but it’s an acceptable temporary move. While it does not answer the larger long-term issue of the department’s future, it does move the staff and public out of an unsuitable structure and maintains services in the interim.

■ Why you should care: Public health services provide basic care for many and act to protect the health of the public.

■ For more information: Log on to our website, www.lubbockonline.com, and enter the words “Lubbock Health Department” in the search box.